The Democrats’ rush to beat the Republicans at the gerrymandering game confirms that America is doomed. Even Barack Obama, whom I regarded as having some degree of integrity, has endorsed the scheme. Meanwhile, the Democrats in Congress aren’t even trying to get Trump removed for his many despotic abuses of power. Most of them are avoiding any hint of impeachment because they’re afraid of losing the pro-tyranny vote. But the Democratic Party isn’t afraid of losing the votes of people who care about fair elections. It doesn’t mind throwing away any suggestion of principled opposition to MAGA.

America as a free country is dying, murdered from within. Who did it? Let’s look at some suspects.

Suspect #1: Donald Trump

Going by immediate consequences, Donald Trump has done more than anyone else to wreck the USA in 2025. He has created a secret police force, imposed large and erratic taxes by fiat, appointed dishonest and incompetent people to high offices, and used his power to intimidate people. Still, he’s just a focus, a symptom. A healthy free society wouldn’t have elected him, and if it somehow did by mistake, it would quickly remove him from power. We need to look for broader causes.

Suspect #2: Republican politicians

The Republicans in Congress, governors’ offices, and state legislatures show a bigger picture. Congress has done nothing to stop Trump. The Republicans’ majorities in both houses are thin, and it would take only a couple of Republicans with self-respect to defeat outrageous measures like the Big Beautiful Bill. Governors and legislatures could take measures to affirm their states’ independence from Trump’s illegal demands. It doesn’t happen when Republicans hold office. Nearly all of them have pinned their hopes on Trump’s power grab.

The Republican Party once stood, even if it was inconsistent, for limited federal power. Through the decades it’s reversed itself. It bears a huge amount of guilt.

Suspect #3: Democratic politicians

As the Republicans work do destroy freedom, the Democrats have found it too scary to stand up to them. No impeachment measure has gotten to the House floor, and party leaders have discouraged them. Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver has said, “We should never, at least in the near future, use the ‘I’ word. One of the things we learned is that articles of impeachment are also articles of recruitment for Trump.” Mustn’t antagonize the all important pro-masked Gestapo, pro-strongman government constituency.

When the Democrats do complain, it’s almost always about losing their favorite federal expenditures. Whatever you think of funding for NPR, it’s far less important than masked thugs grabbing people without accountability and shipping them off to a rapidly growing Gulag. But courage is seldom found in Congress.

Democrats have long been supporters of the imperial presidency when they control the White House, so they don’t have their hearts in opposing abuse of the office.

The cowardly attitude of Democratic politicians not only fails to counter Trump, it leaves many constituents thinking things aren’t as bad as they are.

Suspect #3: Christian nationalists

Trump makes an odd hero for people who want to impose religious law on America. He cares little about religion and regularly violates traditional Christian morality. He promises more than he delivers to them, but they find him useful. Christian nationalism has roots that are centuries old. It aims for a return to the days when Christianity was the state religion in most of Europe and dissenters had reduced rights or were outlawed. They think their chances are better with Trump than with any Democrat, but it isn’t just a relationship of convenience. They see something messianic about him. He’s promised them a lot, even if he hasn’t done so much for them.

These people are prime movers in the destruction of American freedom.

Suspect #4: Nativists

There’s a strong overlap between Christian nationalists and nativists, but the ideas are different. Nativists despise anything foreign. They want foreigners removed and imports heavily taxed, even if it hurts them economically. The admiration for ICE’s brutality comes from this group. Denial of due process is a plus for them. Evidence that Trump is a vile person increases their admiration for him.

Nativists are the core of Trump’s support, the people most of his actions are calculated to please. They’ve always been around, but their current resurgence is the biggest in decades.

Suspect #5: The hard left

Socialism is as destructive as Trump’s neo-Fascism, and some people support Trump because they think the alternative is a Leninist state. Things would be no better if a socialist government took power, but that’s a much smaller threat at the moment. The people on the far left are, unfortunately, good at making themselves look bigger than they are. The Democrats are as reluctant to antagonize them as they are to annoy Trumpists. Socialists have made themselves highly visible at anti-Trump rallies, reducing the chances to build a broad coalition. They toss out easily refuted claims, such as that the facility in Florida is an “Alligator Auschwitz,” making the opposition look less credible.

These people use insults as their main debating tactic, convincing no one, but driving people into whatever camp is furthest from them. They hate America and capitalism. They detest coalitions with anyone who doesn’t fully agree with them. Their approach limits the danger they pose, but they’re a liability to any broad anti-Trump movement.

And the guilty party is…

As in a certain famous mystery novel, the murderer is — all of them! The Democratic and Republican parties and the fanatical left and right have all hurt the chances of reclaiming American freedom. There are a lot of good people opposing the massive abuses of presidential power, people whose attitudes are liberal in the proper sense of the word, but their impact is diffuse and insufficient.

Short of the extinction of humanity, there’s no such thing as the permanent destruction of freedom. An effective speaker might still rouse Americans to opposing and stopping the trend to tyranny, but the chances are very low. The best we’ll be able to do is keep the embers from going out, just as some people are doing in Hong Kong and Russia. We haven’t reached the point where dissenters get arrested, and we need to take advantage of that.

Welcome to the long night.